Adam Silver: NBA media doesn’t do enough to celebrate basketball

Adam Silver respects the job the media does. The NBA commissioner wanted to get that out of the way first.

The media has a role to play in the NBA’s ecosystem. But even with Silver acknowledging the importance of that role, the league has found itself grappling with a perception issue that’s partly fueled by those who cover it and how they cover it.

As Awful Announcing’s Matt Yoder pointed out in his scathing critique of sports media’s NBA problem, no one who covers the sport seems to know how to cover said sport. According to Yoder, the narrative seems disconnected from what fans actually want to consume, as in the stories that speak to the present, not old debates or tired arguments.

Somewhere along the way, the media lost sight of what truly resonates with the people who follow the sport.

“Old players complaining about today’s stars, personal feuds taking center stage, and endless debates about GOATs and comparing eras that completely ignore what is actually happening this season,” Yoder wrote.

And then there’s Inside the NBA, once the gold standard of post-game coverage. We did everything we could to salvage it, only for Charles Barkley to declare he’s “bored” by the playoffs, and Shaquille O’Neal not even knowing that Nikola Jokić is from Serbia, or that Chauncey Billups doesn’t coach the Detroit Pistons.

Something has to give; that much is true. But push has to come, and perhaps that push is from the NBA commissioner, who outlined what he wants to see differently about how the league is covered.

“I respect the job the media does,” Silver said on The Numbers on the Board Podcast. “It’s not a suggestion that people shouldn’t ask tough questions, or be critical, or talk about things they don’t like about the game. But, I would say, and it goes exactly to your production company — Enjoy Basketball — that sometimes, I think, they don’t spend enough time talking about why people love this game.

“Recently, I was at a meeting with Mike Krzyzewski, former coach at Duke, and he condensed it with this headline. He said, ‘We should educate people about the game, and celebrate the game.’ Educate and celebrate. And I wish there was more of that.”

Adam Silver on what needs to improve with NBA media coverage:

“They don’t spend enough time talking about why people love this game.”

(🎥 via @notbpod) pic.twitter.com/CEzSV7RQxz

— Front Office Sports (@FOS) April 28, 2025

But do we really believe this isn’t just a suggestion? A gentle nudge, perhaps? The narrative of the NBA’s supposed demise and its so-called ratings disaster has been wildly overstated. The league’s media deals with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon make it clear that the NBA’s financial clout and global reach are stronger than ever.

But you wouldn’t know that if you tuned into First Take or Inside the NBA, and that’s the disconnect.

So, how would Silver go about fixing that?

Well, he wants the media to shift focus away from criticism and toward what truly matters, which is the game itself. He’s not asking for fluff but for coverage that celebrates and educates about what makes the NBA special right now. And if the media can’t figure that out, the gap between what’s being covered and what fans actually care about will keep growing.

So, will the media actually listen to the commissioner? Time will tell.